Mechanism for feeding cartridges into machine-guns.



N6. 723,719. PATENTED MAR. 24, 1903.

T. K. NORTH. MECHANISM FOR FEEDING CARTRIDGES INTO MACHINE GUNS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 5, 1902.

1 N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET l;

PATENTED MAR. 24, 1903.

T. K. NORTH. MECHANISM FOR FEEDING CARTRIDGES INTO MACHINE GUNS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 5, 1902.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 N0 MODEL.

Illllllllll Zl/i m 866663 QC: Q% I PATENTED MAR. 24, 1903.

T. K. NORTH. MECHANISM FOR FEEDING CARTRIDGES INTO MAOHINEGUNS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 5, 1902.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

HO MODEL.

.UNITE 'ra rns Fries.

ATENT V THOMAS K. NORTH, or WESTMINSTER, ENGLAND.

MECHANISM FOR FEEDING GARTFIDGES'INTOMACHINE -G'UNS.

SPECIFICATION forming part .of Letters Fatent No. 723,719, dated March24, 1903. Application filed September 5, 1902. Serial No. 122,238. (liemodel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, THOMAS KEPPEL NORTH, a citizen of England, residingat 34 Victoria street, Westminster, in the county of London, England,have invented a certain new and useful Improved Mechanism for FeedingCartridges int-o Machine-Guns and for Like Purposes, (for which I haveapplied for a patent in Great Britain, dated February 14, 1902, No.

3,822,) of which the following is a specification.

'My invention relates to an improved construction of that kind of feedmechanism for feeding cartridges into machine-guns and for like purposesin which the cartridges or other objects to be fed are contained inspiral or helical grooves or channels within a drum or cylindricalchamber, in which grooves the cartridges, &c., are caused to travelgradually forward, so as to be brought consecutively in front of adischarge-opening through which they are delivered into the gun, &c.

According to my present invention I construct such mechanism as follows:Within a rotatable outer drum or cylinder is a'stationary cylinderhaving a deep helical blade of slow pitch formed around it extending tonear the' inner periphery of the outer drum, the spaces between theconvolutions of the'blade constituting a continuous helical channel of awidth corresponding to the diameter of the cartridges and of a' depthsomewhat greater than the length of these. On the inner periphery of theouter drum are formed grooves or projections ru ning parallel, or nearlyso, with the longitu inal axis of the drum and adapted to receive andhold between them the heads of the cartridges or other objects. Fromthis construction it will be seen that'if theeutire stationary helicalchannel be filled with cartridges projecting radially into it from thelongitudinal grooves of the drum in which their heads are engaged thenon rotating the drum it will be made to carry all the cartridges aroundwith it by means of their heads and will thereby cause them to travelslowly forward in the helical channel, while at the same time theirheads will slide forward in an axial direction, each cartridge beingthus successively brought beforesa discharge-opening.

Although I prefer to make the channel containing the cartridges ofhelical form, as described,i t is obvious that it need not constitute atrue helix, but may be of any approximate form. 7 i

On the accompanying drawings is shown the construction of theabove-described mechanism which I prefer to employ applied by way ofexample to a gun with automatic breech action.

Figure 1 shows anelevation of the outer side of the feed-drum, partly insection. Fig. 2 shows a side elevation of the drum with a cross-sectionof the breech of the gun to which it is attached. side of the drum nextthe gun. Fig. 4 is a transverse section through the drum and sideelevation of the helical blade, and Fig. 5 is a sectional detail;

From a disk at, adapted to be held stationary against the side of thegun, as wili be presently described, projects a cylinder b, on which isfixed or formed a helical blade 0 of slow pitch, soar-ranged that itsinner end terminates at the discharge-opening d' in the disk at. Thehelical blade is of' such a diame Fig.' 3 is an elevation of the terthat the depth of the helical channel formed thereby shall somewhatexceed the length of that-cartridges e to'be fed into the gun. Inclosingthe helical blade 01 is a cylindrical casing or drum composed, first,"'othe cylindrical part f, of such a diameter as to project over theperiphery of the disk a; secondly, a disk g, to which f is fixedbyscrews, as shown, or by other suitable means, and, thirdly, a centralcylindrical axis h, formed inone with g and fitting rotatably within thecylinder b, in which position the drumis secured by a screw-nut 11,screwed onto the projecting end of h, the end of the cylinder be-' ingrecessed to contain the nut, as .shown.

On the inner periphery of cylinder fare formed a number of grooves j,arranged parallel, or nearly so, with the axis andformed so as toreceive and hold the rimmed bases of the cartridges e, so as to holdthese with their bodies situated in radial positions in the helicalgroove formed by the blade 0, as shown,

From this arrangement it will be- 'seenthat, assuming the drum to becharged with cartridges and the disk a, with cylinder- 1) and helicalblade 0, to beheld stationary,

at Fig. 1.

while the drum f q h is made to revolve with a step-by-step motion, thegrooves j in carrying around the cartridges will cause these to advancein the helical channel in the direc-' tion toward thedischarge-opeuingd,through which they will consequently. pass consecutively into'thechamber of the gun, a guidepiece is being fixed to the helix for guidingthe cartridges from the latter tothedischargeopening.

' 'The attachment of the drum to the side of the gun is effected bymeans of an undercut tongue Z,'-projecting from the plate a, which isslid into a corresponding groove 'm, on the side of the gun,

'lhe st-ep-hy-step rotary motion of thedrum for feeding forward thecartridges can be effected in various ways, according to the arrangementof. the guns breech action. In the arrangement shown'at Figs. land 2 thedrum f has a series of tel h or notches naronnd its periphery,corresponding in n umber to-the number of cartridges 6 contained in onecon- 'volution ofthe helix 0, with which teeth or notches is engaged aspring-pawl 0, pivotedto a lever, 12, turning on a pivot-pin q, fixed tothe side of tihegun; 'Ihislever has agroove' '1', preferably of the''curved'for-m shown, in

which isengaged a-stud s,projecting.from' the bar t, connected to thebreech-block a, which stud.consequently travels through a straight pathfrom left to-right when the *hre,ech-..holt is slid backward afterfiring.

-When the breech-bolt is closed, the stud 8 being then at the left-handend of groove'r, the lever 1'0, with its pawl 0, will be in the raisedpositionshown in dot-and-dash lines,

the pawl beingengagedin oneof the notches of the drum. As'thebreech-bolt recedes after firing the studs will move the lever'downwardinto the position shown in fulllines, and

the pawl'o will conse uently turn the feed- :drum in the'd'irection-ofthe arrow through a distance equal to the distance apart of the notches,and consequently of the cartridges, thereby bringinga fresh cartridgeinfront of the dischargeopening d, whence it passes into the gun.

The groove'r .ot the lever is by preference formed curved, asshown, inorder toetr'ect the rotation of the drum with a gradually-acceleratedmotion at the beginning and witha gradually-retarded,motionat the end. h

It will be'obvio'us' that instead of arranging the drum-feed mechanismin the vertical position, as described, it might be arranged inahorizontal position on the top of thegun, so its to feed the cartridgesdownward into the atter.

A record may be kept of the number of cartridges in the drum by markingon its periphery a; number of divisions corresponding to the number ofits grooves, while on the plate 'of the-inner cylinder is fixed apointer, past which the numbered divisions travel, so that as the numberof cartridges in each groove is known the number discharged can beeasily ascertained by counting the complete revolu- Lions of the drum,or the drum may by its rotation :impart. motion to any suitable counterdevice attached to the mechanism.

. For filling the mechanism with cartridges,in the first instance it isdetached from the gun or machine and one of the peripheral grooves ofthe drum having been brought before the discharge-openings cartridge isinserted with its head engaged in the groove. The drum -is then turnedone step in thecontrary direction to its'feed-motion, wherebyt-he'cartridgc is carried into the mouth of the helical channel. Asecond cartridge is then in- 8:

vtroduced intothe' nex't groove that presents itself, andthe drum isagain turned one step, and so on, the cartridges being by this meanscarried backward in the channel until the drum is full, or a separatefilling-opening might beprovided in outer closed face of the drum,through which the cartridges would be inserted in the same manner asabove described, the drum being, however, in this 'case turned in theforward direction for filling it.

As before stated, theblade 0' need not necessarily constitute a truehelix. For example, it might be of the modified form shown at Fig. 6,where the several convolutions-o are for the inostpa rt formed at rightangles 5 to the axis and onlycommunicate wit-beach other by a more orless quick bend at o Also 'the grooves in the drum need not beabsolutely parallel to the axis so long as they are in a longitudinaldirection.

Having thus described the nature of this invention and the-best means Iknow or carrying the same into practical effect I claim 1. Automaticfeed apparatus for cartridges and other objects consisting of arotatable o drum having on its inner periphery longitudinal grooves orprojections adapted to hold the rimmed bases of cartridges or other ob-'jects so that these shall be carried around with the drum while theyare free to slide in r: the axial direction relatively thereto, and adeep groove of helical or equivalent form stationary within the drum,adapted to contain the bodies of the cartridges carried by the V 'saiddrum, so that by the rotation of the latn ter the cartridges or otherobjects are made to travel in said groove toward a dischargeopening,substantially as described.

' 2, Automatic feed apparatus for cartridges and other' objectsconsisting of a rotatable w drum closed at one end and open at the otherand having on its inner periphery longitudinal grooves or projectionsadapted to hold the rimmed bases of cartridges or other obadapted toreceive the bodies of the cartridges held by the drum so that on therotation of the latter the cartridges are made to travel in said groovetoward a discharge-opening in the stationary plate, substantially asdescribed.

3. Automatic feed apparatus for cartridges and other objects consistingof a drum rotatable on a central axis having on itsinner pero ripherylongitudinal grooves or projections adapted to hold the rimmed bases ofcartridges or other objects, so that these shall be carried around withthe drum, a ring of teeth or notches on the outer periphery of said :5drum, a pawl device engaged with said teeth or notches and adapted to bemoved to and fro by suitable reciprocating mechanism so as to impart astep-by-step rotary motion to the drum, and a deep groove of helical orequivalent form stationary within the drum,

adapted to contain the bodies of the cartridges carried by said drum sothat by the rotation of the latter the cartridges are made to travel insaid groove toward a discharge- ;5 opening, substantially as described.

4. Automatic feed apparatus for cartridges and other objects consistingof a drum rotatable on a central axis having on its inner peripherylongitudinal grooves or projections adapted to hold the rimmed bases ofcartridges or other objects so that these shall be carried around withthe drum, a ring of teeth or notches on the outer periphery of saiddrum, a plate adapted to be held by a stationary object and having atubular axis pro jecting therefrom on which the drum can rotate, aleverfulcrumed on a fixed pivot and adapted to receive a to-and-fromotion by a r reciprocating part of the machine to which the feedapparatus is attached and carrying "a spring-pawl that is engaged withthe teeth or notches of the drum, so thatthe motion of saidlever andpawl in one direction effects the rotation of the drum through thedistance for bringing a cartridge in front of the discharge-opening,substantially as described. I

5. In an automatic feed apparatus for cartridges and other objects, thecombination of a disk a adapted to be attached to the gun or otherobject which is to be supplied thereby,

andhaving a central tubular projection b, a helical blade 0 forming ahelical channel for containing the cartridges or other objects, saidblade being carried by projection b, a discharge-opening d for the issueof the objects from the helical channel, a drum f g having a centralaxis h rotatably mounted in

